We spent a few hours chatting with Becca Caves, the floral designer behind Flora Folk. Like us, she has an affinity for all things nature and took that love one step further…

Where did Flora Folk begin?

We always had a beautiful garden growing up that my Mum spent so much time on, so I spent most of my childhood playing in the garden, climbing trees and running through plant nurseries. It took me a few years to realise that working in an office wasn’t for me so I decided to follow my dreams and combine my two loves, creativity and nature and started Flora Folk!

How would you describe your floral style?

I would say my style is natural and whimsical and I always set out to create something different, no arrangement is ever the same. For some reason I always seem to come back to being massively inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll and my work is generally strongly influenced by nature, art, travel, writing and music.

What’s your top tip to taking care of fresh flowers?

Make sure you trim them on an angle and put them in fresh water as soon as you can making sure there is no foliage that sits in the water. And change the water at least every 2 days.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a career in floral design?

Being a florist is such a lovely job, but I think it’s important to be really passionate about plants and flowers and be willing to work hard as it is quite physically demanding, especially waking up at 3:45am for the markets! And most of all – get out to the markets as much as you can, I feel like that’s how I learnt and still continue to learn the most about the flowers.

What’s your favourite thing about your job?

What I love most is that flowers say so much, they make people happy and also turn a space into something magical, and that makes me feel good at the end of the day. Also there’s nothing more exciting when the flowers come and go with the new seasons, it makes them so special when they aren’t around all the time.

How would you describe your personal / fashion style?

Definitely quite eclectic. I love finding things that no one else has, at the moment I’m obsessed with my wide brimmed straw that I found in an op shop for $3 and my denim overalls I bought over 10 years ago. People were stopping me on the street in New York asking where I got them from which was great!

Favourite place on this planet to escape to?

So many, travelling is my favourite thing to do. To this date Mexico was my favourite place, the food, the people, the colours. But I recently visited Caye Caulker, a tiny island of Belize in the Caribbean which has now topped my favourite place. But I’m always thinking about where I can go to next that I haven’t been.

Favourite song/album/playlist right now?

This week I’ve been listening a lot to Bat for Lashes. She’s incredible.

Want to make you own arrangement? Bec takes us through how to make a grouped flat back posy, an easy arrangement for beginners that looks gorgeous once wrapped!

1. Design and colour wise, a really easy method if you’re a beginner is to select materials in the same shade, i.e shades of pinks.2. I selected some camellia foliage, 1/2 bunch of rhododendron, 1/2 bunch of sweet pea and about a bunch of ranunculus.3. Place down your foliage first on a table to be the support and back of your arrangement, then on top of it sitting slightly to the right I added the ranunculus keeping it in its bunch, but making sure the flowers sit at different heights. Keep holding the bunch together flat on the table.4. Then crossing over the top so it sits more to the left I added the rhododendron, again keeping it grouped together. Then slightly lower in the middle and to the right of the bunch, I added the grouped sweet pea.5. Once you’re happy with your arrangement bind it off with some twine and cut the stems. Then you can wrap up with some nice white or brown craft paper!

If you want to see more beautiful arrangements by Becca Caves, you can check out her website, Flora Folk or follow @floraflk on Instagram!